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The Current State of Early Stage Startup Hiring

What I learned at the Initialized Capital Startup Talent Summit

Author

Kyle Thomas
May 18, 2024

Sponsored by

JOB SEARCH STRATEGY
HELLOOooo, SAN FRANCISCO!

It takes a lot to tear me out of New Jersey these days.

With three kids under 7 and a business to run, it can be hard to step away.

But this week I took a trip I hadn’t taken in almost 6 years.

Like the brave pioneers before me, I jumped aboard my covered wagon (plane) and headed out West for (startup) gold.

This week, Initialized Capital hosted its first-ever Startup Talent Summit.

Thankfully, since thousands of you couldn’t attend, I was there to soak up all that early-stage startup hiring mojo so I could share it with you.

I heard about…

  • The positions in highest demand at early-stage companies today

  • The current level of application competitiveness

  • Traits that make early-stage candidates shine

  • Application strategy, networking, and vetting companies.

And now… it’s time for me to share it with all of you.

Let’s go!

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EARLY STAGE HIRING DEMAND.

If there’s one thing I learned in Econ 101 and running operations at Uber, it’s supply and demand.

I’ve been looking at the career pages for early-stage startups for the last two years, and the trends always look something like this.

  • 3-5 Engineering positions

  • 1-2 Sales positions

  • 1 Product Management position (sometimes)

  • 1 Operations position (sometimes)

So when I asked Initialized Capital’s Head of Talent, Tiffany Foo, about the current most in-demand positions at early-stage companies, her answer didn’t shock me.

Engineers and salespeople.

This makes sense in the lifecycle of a startup.

In the early days it’s just a couple of co-founders and a few engineers helping them build the product.

The co-founders do everything in the early days until they get a little traction, and then it’s time to scale their efforts to get customers because nothing matters if you can’t show investors that people are willing to pay for your product.

So, they hire more engineers to continue building the product and more salespeople to sell it.

As the operation continues to grow, the co-founders' time will start to get bogged down in the day-to-day company operations, so they will look for one person to take that off their plate.

Same thing with product.

So, if you’re an engineer or sales, you’re in luck because the founders are hungry for what you have to offer and there are more openings for you.

If you’re in operations or product, there is still opportunity, but the same number of people will compete for half or a third of the opportunities, so you will need to do everything you can to stand out.

Job Search Tip: Just because there are fewer (or no) roles matching your skillset doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply or reach out to the founders at a target company. You never know what roles aren’t posted that are currently being recruiter for. Also, roles are often created for great candidates who take initiative, reach out, and provide value.

IT’S GETTING COMPETITIVE EARLY.

One of the advantages of applying to early-stage companies is that far fewer people know about the company, which, in theory, should reduce competition for their open roles.

But with increasing numbers of online job boards and AI application bots the number of applicants for even the earliest stages of companies has skyrocketed.

From conversations at the talent summit, I learned that it’s not out of the ordinary for a single role at a Seed or Series A company to have 300-500 applicants.

The recruiter at Runway said they had over 10k applicants to positions the prior year with single-digit or low double digit openings.

That’s nuts!

Early-stage teams don’t have recruiting departments, and many don’t even have an ATS system, so sorting through 300-500 applicants to find the single person who would be the best fit is a herculean task.

I know I say this a lot, but this is the exact reason why simply submitting your application and hoping for the best is not enough.

The odds that your resume will shine through like a diamond in the rough are low…

Very low.

Job Search Tip: You absolutely should send in a resume but stopping there is like taking a single step in a marathon and saying you finished the race. Send emails to the founders, network with current employees, send value deliverables demonstrating your skills, engage with the team on social media. These are the ways to draw attention to your resume hidden under a pile of hundreds of identical resumes.

TOP TRAITS OF TOP HIRES.

A part of the Startup Talent Summit was dedicated to a panel with the founders of Tanda (Jesse Chor), Career Karma (Ruben Harris), and Apero Health (Jacinda Shelly).

I was surprised by their answers when asked what sets people apart in the hiring process.

Yes, they highlighted that they’re looking for relevant experience, but they also shared that they receive many applications from people with relevant experience for each position.

The thing that really made people stand out?

Their personality.

Jesse shared that he’s really looking for whether this person will be fun to work with.

Ruben shared that he’s looking for some depth behind the candidate’s resume and whether he understands what kind of person they are outside of work.

This makes sense more in early-stage companies than in any work environment.

The teams are small, the work is hard, the goals are lofty, the journey is long.

Liking the people in those small conference rooms is not a nice to have, it’s a must.

The funny thing is that most people hide their personalities during the interview process because they think it will disqualify them as candidates.

These founders shared the opposite.

Those daring enough to let their personality shine stand out in a sea of sameness.

Job Search Tip: It’s hard to understand a person’s personality from a resume. It’s easy to understand a person’s personality from a video. So record a quick Loom video introducing yourself and why you’re so excited to work for this company and don’t be afraid to inject some of your quirky or passionate personality into it. It could be the difference in whether you get an interview.

A WINNING JOB SEARCH STRATEGY.

Three speakers shared job search strategy advice with the startup job seekers in attendance.

Jesse Chor (Co-Founder of Tanda) spoke about the application process.

Eleanor Morgan (Co-Founder of a stealth startup) spoke about the power of networking.

Lexi Lewtan (Founder of Leopard.FYI) spoke about how to vet companies.

Here are some highlights of what they shared:

  • Resumes: Hiring managers spend as close to zero seconds looking at each resume as possible. What’s important to them is that they can immediately tell what skills you have and what experience is relevant. They recommended using a skills section and placing it at the top, particularly for highly technical roles. This was new to me since I hate skills sections, but it shows that different people have different ways of assessing resumes.

  • Strengths & Weaknesses: Jesse ran through a very telling exercise. He asked for a volunteer. He then asked the volunteer for their strengths. They were able to answer immediately. Then he asked them for their weaknesses. The volunteer couldn’t think of them. Jesse then asked that same volunteer about the strengths and weaknesses of their favorite super hero. They could immediately rattle them off. You need to know your strengths and weaknesses as well as you know them for Superman. Become your own Superhero with your own hero’s journey, strengths, and weaknesses. Rehearse them until you commit them to memory.

  • Act As If: “I know I could do the job if they just gave me the chance.” I hear that sentence all the time. So do founders. Instead of getting permission from someone to be who you want to be and land the role you want, act as if. Demonstrate to the hiring team what their ideal hire does and who they are. Share your insights publicly. Create value deliverables for the team that solves real-world problems. Earn their confidence.

  • “Almosts” Can Lead To Great Things: People at companies where you interviewed and are a finalist but don’t get the job can change your career. Build great relationships with the hiring team regardless of the outcome. You may miss out on the current opportunity, but these are the people playing in the sandbox you want to play in, and they know lots of other people looking for someone just like you. You never know if they will introduce you to your future company, become a future co-worker, or invest in your startup (Eleanor had examples of all of these from her career).

  • Roles Get Shaped, Not Just Filled: Do you give up on a company because they don’t have an open role that fits your exact skill set? If so, you’re likely missing out on a major opportunity. Startups are constantly evolving and founders refine existing job openings as they speak with more candidates. Sometimes they create roles specifically for great candidates they speak with. So, regardless of whether the company has an open role, it pays to reach out to the founders earlier rather than later.

  • You Need To Interview Them: If you’re interviewing at Microsoft, you don’t need to ask, “Why is now the right time for this product to exist?” or “What is the primary revenue model, and how has it evolved?” but questions like those are critical when judging whether or not you want to spend the next two-plus years of your life working at a company. Ask questions to ensure you know what they do, how it’s going, and how they work.

Job Search Tip: For a list of great questions to ask at the end of your interview, check out this blog post from the team at Leopard.FYI.

OPEN ROLES
Who’s Hiring?

These companies were in attendance at Initialized’s Startup Talent Summit.

Check out the company details and open roles below.

Then go out there and get those jobs!

  • What They Do: The operational side of running a medical practice is an absolute antiquated mess. With automated claim submission, integrated online patient billing, and a modern API powered by machine learning and data science, Apero allows medical practices to reduce denial rates and streamline their billing process.

  • Total Raised To Date: $0.28M

  • Last Raise Date: July 01, 2020

  • Recent Raise: Undisclosed

  • Top VC Investors: Initialized Capital, Y-Combinator

  • Series: Seed

  • Number of Employees: 16

  • Open Roles:

  • What They Do: Home appraisals are a hyper manual process that still relies on human eyes and judgement. AI can change that. Powered by machine intelligence, HomeVision creates appraisal reports seamlessly, eliminating the need for importing/exporting or revision requests, ensuring a hassle-free experience for users.

  • Total Raised To Date: Undisclosed

  • Last Raise Date: December 26, 2023

  • Recent Raise: Undisclosed

  • Top VC Investors: Initialized Capital

  • Series: Series A

  • Number of Employees: 34

  • Open Roles:

  • What They Do: This is Smokey the Bear’s favorite company. Why? Because they’re using AI to detect forest fires. By using AI on mountaintop camera feeds and satellite imagery, it detects threats in real-time, enabling swift action to mitigate risks and safeguard communities and the environment.

  • Total Raised To Date: $45M

  • Last Raise Date: March 17, 2023

  • Recent Raise: $17M

  • Valuation: $117M

  • Series: Series A

  • Number of Employees: 45

  • Pitchbook Success Probability: 93% Success

  • Open Roles:

  • What They Do: Lots of startups have been closing recently due to running out of runway. If only there were a product to help ensure that doesn’t happen… oh wait, there is. Runway is a business financial software offering clarity, power, and speed, enabling teams to align on the entire business and make better decisions together, fast.

  • Total Raised To Date: $32.50M

  • Last Raise Date: July 17. 2023

  • Recent Raise: $27.50M

  • Valuation: $117.5M

  • Series: Series A

  • Number of Employees: 40

  • Pitchbook Success Probability: 89% Success

  • Open Roles:

Tanda

  • What They Do: Specializing in financial security, Tanda is a social savings application designed to revolutionize how individuals approach savings. By connecting users with savings opportunities, building credit, and fostering community growth, their application empowers members to achieve financial security and build a brighter future.

  • Total Raised To Date: $5.25M

  • Last Raise Date: November 15, 2023

  • Recent Raise: $4.5M

  • Series: Seed

  • Number of Employees: 8

  • Open Roles:

There is a lot more to come from everything that came out of the Initialized Startup Talent Summit.

If there’s one thing I can recommend after attending it’s this.

Do what you can to get in-person with the companies you’re targeting.

You can make a significant impression on someone just by shaking their hand and talking about how interesting you find them and your company.

Let’s become career champions together 🏆

Kyle

See you again next week!